17,166….but who’s counting?

17,166. It’s a large enough number which is big for some things, small for others. If you are counting grains of sand on a beach, it is so very small. If you are counting Loonies, especially if you are wrapping them in rollers, then it is a large enough number (and assembled is 236 pounds of coins). It’s all perspective.

It also happens to be the number of days one will be when you turn 47. 17,166 trips around the sun. 17,166 night times. 17,166 opportunities to start anew.17,166 sunrises and sunsets. In that way it is a fairly impressive number, depending on which side of the number you stand.

Today my wife is 17166 days old. When the clock strikes midnight, she will have entered 17,167. Time stops for no one. The number itself is why we measure life in years, not days. We have more than enough to deal with on a daily basis without actually counting them.

We have been married for 8079 of those days. Just shy of 25 years. And there is not a day which I am not thankful for that. I have been so fortunate to be married to the most unique, caring, enigmatic, crazy, awesome, intelligent person I have ever met. Did I mention crazy? In a good way let me assure you.

This year has been tougher than most for us. For a variety of reasons. And yet this has made us stronger. Like hardened steel. And her spirituality and devotion to our family is one of the main reasons we are still standing straight. She has been such a special friend to others who have suffered loss, have battled loneliness, required guidance and light. She seemingly has a bottomless well of energy for those who require it. And it comes back to her and by extension our family. It is tremendously humbling.

I write something like this every year for her birthday. Blogging, like a dear friend of mine once told me, is like taking a mental poop. I need to get it out of me. A sick metaphor, yet apropos nonetheless. It is difficult to articulate what this woman means to me…..but I still must try.

As Anne move through to 17,167 days old, I ask all those who know her and have had the opportunity to engage in her beautiful soul to send her some positive thoughts and light as she navigates through the waters of long term care for our parents, through family transitions, through job changes, and just in general. She loves so many others. And I have witnessed the love coming back to her.

I truly wish everyone could have the honour of having a partner like mine. We should all be so lucky.

Wife, mother, sister, daughter, autism whisperer, oracle, light-wielder, best friend…..she wears so many hats it;s a winder her beautiful red hair is still there. May she have another 30,000 days of healthy living.